


Not Dating

by ladyroxanne21



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Depression, Happy Ending, M/M, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24261406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyroxanne21/pseuds/ladyroxanne21
Summary: When Harry sees Draco in the Leaky accepting dangerous substances, he feels he has no choice but to intervene.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 13
Kudos: 131





	Not Dating

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short fic that came to me the other night and I thought I'd type it up :-)

Harry was concerned. Normally when he was in the Leaky, he was the center of attention. People would near hound him until he shook their hands and let them thank him. He had more or less gotten used to it, even though he really didn't like it.

Tonight was different. Tonight... everyone seemed to be flocking to Draco instead. But it wasn't a good thing, even though it looked like it on the surface. See, Draco hadn't been out of his Manor since having all the charges against him dismissed. So tonight when he showed up at the Leaky looking miserable and depressed, Harry was concerned but didn't think anything of it when people flocked to him to give him drinks to congratulate him on managing to avoid punishment.

People gave him drinks and Draco more or less shrugged as he accepted them and drank them. He even saw when people spiked those drinks with various things and drank them anyway. When it got to the point that they were openly offering him drugs and potions that could be harmful – and Draco took them anyway – that's when Harry got fed up.

He stood up and marched over to Draco, glaring at those who were currently offering him things. “What do you think you're doing?” He demanded of a man that looked intense and angry.

The man got defensive but tried to act like nothing was wrong. “Just giving a Death Eater things to celebrate getting off scot free.”

That's when it hit Harry. “Are you... trying to get him to kill himself?”

The crowd looked away evasively. “It's not our fault if he's downing things like he's celebrating saving the world.”

Feeling like he could quite happily hex the lot of them into slugs to stomp on, Harry grabbed Draco by the scruff and hauled him to his feet. “Come on!”

Draco only resisted a little as Harry pulled him clear of everything. When he was certain there would be no splinching, he Apparated them directly to his kitchen, where he carefully set Draco in a chair. Then he promptly scanned for everything, finding a nearly lethal amount of alcohol, combined with muggle drugs such as cocaine, crack, and meth – not to mention traces of ACTUALLY lethal poisons that COULD be taken safely in small doses.

In fact, Draco seemed to be fading rather quickly now. Nearly panicking, Harry summoned a bezoar and filled the time it took to come flying to him by casting spells to deal with the drugs and alcohol. For a few seconds after the bezoar was shoved in his mouth, Harry was certain that it wasn't working, and then Draco's eyes cleared up and he seemed lucid.

“What the hell Malfoy?!”

Slumping in utter defeat, Draco muttered. “I had a fight with my parents and I'm so fucking tired of trying to live up to everyone's expectations that I... just... wanted it to end...”

Harry sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair, highly tempted to just yank it all out. “Look, I don't think you should be alone at the moment, so even though my flat is tiny – probably cramped compared to what you're used to – I'm going to tuck you into my bed and let you sleep until you're feeling better. I'll hex you to sleep if I have to!”

“Whatever...” Draco mumbled listlessly.

Taking that as agreement, Harry pulled one of Draco's arms over his shoulder and helped him walk over to the bed – which was basically on the opposite side of the room. He twitched his fingers to wandlessly magic the covers aside, and then carefully sat Draco on the end of the bed so that he could magic the bloke's expensive shoes off. Harry probably would have left it at that, but Draco got an impatient look on his face, pulled out his wand, and magicked his suit jacket, waistcoat, and trousers off to the side, leaving him in his button down shirt, pants, and socks – complete with little calf suspenders to hold them up.

This inexplicably interested Harry, who got a rather disconcertingly good look at the sight as he waited for Draco to shift to a comfortable laying position, and then covered him with the blanket. Then Harry sat there staring at him for several long moments wondering why the sight of Draco in his bed made him feel uneasy. It was suddenly stiflingly warm in the room and his heart felt like he was supposed to be running away from some serious danger.

“Perhaps you should hex me to sleep after all, Potter, that way you won't have to stand there to prevent me from Apparating away,” Draco said, still sounding like he didn't care about anything at all.

“Good idea,” Harry agreed, then cast a mild sleeping hex that should only last about 8-10 hours. 

Once Draco was asleep, Harry ran his hands through his hair again and paced his tiny flat. After a while, he decided that taking a shower might help him relax, which it did. By the time he was done, he felt rather languid and ready for bed. Except his bed was currently occupied, so, he transfigured one of his two arm chairs – his not favorite one – into a small bed. After getting comfortable, he managed to drift off to thoughts of:

_What the hell am I doing feeling sorry for MALFOY for???_

The next morning, Harry woke up to find Draco laying on his bed in a way that let him watch Harry sleep. Draco looked puzzled.

“Good morning,” Harry greeted.

“Morning. You know, you didn't have to put me in _your_ bed. You could have just had me sleep on that transfigured bed and slept comfortably in your own bed,” Draco stated, sounding... better than he was, but still not at peak performance.

“How'd you know I transfigured it?” Harry asked because his mind was still too asleep to realize that it was probably the only thing Harry could have done.

Draco rolled his eyes. “Because you did a rather shoddy job and the upholstery from the chair you used is still clearly visible in random places.”

“Oh. Right. Erm, Malfoy? Are you hungry?”

“I could eat,” Draco replied with a careless shrug.

“Alright then, wait there while I make us some breakfast,” Harry suggested. Then he walked the dozen or so steps to the fridge so that he could look into it. “I put clean towels in the bathroom if you want to take a shower.”

“Why are you living in a hotel room? A tiny one at that.”

Harry chuckled. “It's a proper flat, it's just that I didn't need a lot of space and am actually used to cramped living quarters, so...” he shrugged. “Why get a bigger place?”

“Don't you actually own a house you could live in?” Draco wondered.

“Well, yes, but it's a big and drafty place and I feel a bit agoraphobic when I'm there all by myself with Kreacher,” Harry explained.

Draco didn't say anything and Harry almost thought he fell back asleep, except that he started to fidget. After shifting a couple of times didn't solve the problem, Draco sighed in aggravation, slipped out of bed, and marched to the bathroom. A minute later, he returned to bed and nested in the bedding again.

Harry privately thought that Draco looked adorable while only half dressed and sporting a messy case of bedhead. Suppressing a grin, he focused on the bacon and eggs he was cooking. When they were getting close to done, he made some toast to go with them.

“Hey, Malfoy, do you want to sit at the table with me, or eat in bed?” Harry asked.

A soft sound like a laugh emerged from under the covers. “Breakfast in bed, Potter? Aren't I the lucky one?”

Harry frowned in confusion. “Is that a yes or a no?”

“It's a yes with a side of wondering what the Daily Prophet would say about me spending the night in your bed with you serving me breakfast in it the next morning,” Draco drawled, sounding almost back to normal at this point.

Harry handed him his plate of breakfast. “So... what was your fight about?”

Draco sighed in disappointment, sitting up so that he could eat. “Not that it's any of  _your_ concern, but basically, my parents want me to let them arrange a marriage. I don't feel like I've had time to properly process everything that's happened so far, so I asked them to wait until I've caught my breath, but they feel that the sooner I do it, the sooner I'll be happy with an Heir on the way.”

Harry felt vulnerable all of a sudden and shrugged as he turned to sit at his table. “I dunno. Having a family of my own as soon as possible sounds like a brilliant idea.”

Draco watched Harry focus on his food for a long moment. Still depressed, he wasn't exactly hungry, but it smelled good enough to make him try a few bites. “That's not half bad,” he murmured to himself.

“Listen, you can stay here until you feel better,” Harry offered. “But ONLY if you promise not to go out and purposely accept harmful substances.”

Draco sighed. “I suppose I could always just hex myself and be done with it.”

For some reason, that infuriated Harry. He nearly knocked over his chair as he stood up, and then marched over to Draco. Gripping Draco's face in his hand, he  _glared_ at him.

“Don't. You. Dare!” Harry snarled. “I get that you're not exactly sunshine and rainbows at the moment, but things are getting better, damnit! So be the snarky arsehole that you always are and stick with it until we've ALL had time to recover from the war and move on!”

Draco felt his mouth drop open slightly in shock. “Potter...”

Harry felt his anger deflate abruptly and sighed as he let Draco go. “Don't let haters who know nothing about you win.”

Draco looked to his hands that were holding his plate. He felt like he had nothing left to live for, and thus, nothing left to lose.  _Only that_ could have made him throw away all his pride. “Hold me?”

Harry felt an enormous weight press down on him, making his heart speed up like he needed to run away again, but he pushed that feeling away and nodded. Carefully, he set the plate aside and crawled into bed so that he could pull Draco close and hold him for as long as he needed.

Draco was silent for a long time. He didn't fidget, nor did he hold Harry in return. He simply... let his mind go blank. After a long time – perhaps even a couple of hours – he took a cleansing breath.

“How... how did you get to be so strong?” He asked in a whisper.

“Strong?” Harry questioned, baffled.

“Yeah... I personally have done nothing but bully and harass you and yet you still...” He pulled free from Harry's arms. “THE WORLD has harassed you! You've been labeled deranged and persecuted. You've been targeted by a madman determined to kill you! HOW are you still standing here just bearing it??? HOW CAN YOU BE SO BLOODY STRONG?!”

Harry looked to the ceiling. “If... If I...” He scoffed slightly and shook his head. “If I'd NEVER been let out of the Dursley's house... If I'd never made friends... I'd probably be a broken and useless shell of a person. But I did make friends, and my friends have been there for me through thick and thin. They've become the family I never had. Without them, I'd...” he trailed off with a shake of his head.

Draco growled in frustration. “I HAVE family and friends! I still... I still can't stand the thought of waking up tomorrow to find that nothing's changed. That I should be in Azkaban but I'm not. That my parents want me to be happy but I don't deserve a moment of it!”

“Hey!” Harry protested softly, pulling Draco into his arms again. “That's not true. So long as you promise yourself never to hurt people again and strive to be a better man, then you absolutely DO deserve to be happy!”

“If you say so, Potter,” Draco muttered morosely. He was listless again as he let Harry hold him.

Harry felt like Draco might  _actually_ do something irrevocable unless something  _drastic_ changed his mind. Without thinking about it, Harry just let his instinct take over. After all, his instinct alone had managed to save him countless times when his observations skills had been less than helpful.

Thus, Harry kissed Draco. It was a soft kiss with no expectations. At first, Draco seemed to sort of pause – as if he was not entirely sure if it was actually happening or not. Then he made a sound of disbelief and pulled back so slightly that their lips didn't even separate. Next, he tilted his head in curiosity, making a speculative noise. Finally, he softened his mouth and leaned forward just enough to make it clear he was returning the kiss.

Encouraged, Harry opened his mouth and used his tongue to lick Draco's open too. This pulled a happy little grunt from Harry. They both got lost for a bit, simply kissing and exploring each other's mouths. After a bit, Draco pulled back to look at Harry suspiciously.

“What are you doing?”

“Snogging you,” Harry stated with a smirk. “I should think that would be obvious.”

“Yes but... _why_? What do you hope to gain from this?” The suspicion had turned a bit dark now.

“Nothing except to shock you out of your depression,” Harry answered, hoping that it had worked.

“Hmm...” Draco hummed in thought. “Alright. Let's make a deal, _you_ give me a reason to look forward to waking up in the morning and _I'll_ promise not to try to harm myself – or put myself in any situations where others could harm me with my consent.”

“Hmm...” Harry also hummed as he thought this over. “Erm... what _exactly_ do you mean by a reason to wake up in the morning?”

Draco smirked. “I'm not particular. Anything you want. I mean think about it, I've already tried to let people harm me, so if you want to do that, it's not like I'm going to care. On the other hand, if you want to do things such as kiss me some more, I MIGHT find it interesting enough to look forward to.” He shrugged. “I guess we'll just have to see.”

“So...” Harry murmured as he tried to pick that paragraph apart. “Anything, huh? What about...” he trailed off as he nuzzled Draco's neck and started work on what he hoped would be an impressive love bite.

“Anything Potter. I owe you for saving my life, even though I currently wish you hadn't. Do anything and everything you want to me and I'll let you.”

“That makes it sound bad... but alright, Malfoy. I'll give you a reason to feel better and you can stop me from being lonely until Ron and Mione come back from Australia.” 

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Draco muttered.

***

“COME THE FUCK BACK HOME! ***NOW!!!***” The Howler shouted in Lucius Malfoy's voice.

Imagining the look on his father's face made Draco happy enough to cast the Patronus that Harry had been trying to teach him. He was delighted to see that it was a dragon. Being a Patronus that represented some aspect of him, it was only about the size of a Manta Ray, but that was fine by Draco. Perfect in fact.

“Tell my father: I. Don't. Want. To!”

“Sounds like your parents are getting more worried than ever,” Harry remarked, happy that Draco had finally managed a corporeal Patronus. The Malfoys had been sending Owls each day asking their son where he was and when he was coming home, but aside from telling them that he was alive, he never wanted to actually reply. Since it had been a month, Harry could see why Lucius was finally angry enough to send a Howler.

“Yeah, well, I don't particularly care at the moment,” Draco stated stubbornly.

“Would you go talk to them if I came with you?” Harry asked, trying to be supportive.

Draco glared at him. “Why the fuck would I want that?! We're NOT  _dating,_ Potter!”

_Oh_ ...  _right_ ... Harry thought, wondering why he had assumed that a month of shagging Draco several times a day automatically made them a couple. “Just thought I'd offer...”

The entire next week consisted of an owl showing up each morning asking Draco to please come home and Draco replying with a curt: no.

On Sunday, another Howler showed up  _demanding_ that Draco go home, to which he cast a his Patronus and roared that he was going to hex his father into a coma if he didn't leave him the fuck alone.

The next morning, the Owl said: Stop being a child, Draco, and come the fuck home!

To which Draco replied: Fuck off!

This pattern repeated itself, getting ever more heated in a baffling yet oh so Slytherin way. Each Sunday after the Howler finished echoing around the flat (which was thankfully covered in silencing charms so as to not disturb the neighbors), Harry would quietly offer to go with Draco, and each time, Draco would snarl: “We. Are NOT. DATING.  _Potter_ !!!”

Sighing, Harry couldn't help but wonder how much longer he could take having a snarling dragon living with him. At this point, the fact that Draco seemed more or less normal made Harry think that he was long past the depressive self harming thoughts. Maybe... maybe Harry  _should_ kick him out and force him to go home.

After all, the Malfoys loved their son. They may not have understood his need to wait a while before considering marriage, but they only wanted what was best for him. If the three of them talked now, chances were good that they'd reach a nice agreement.

The  _problem_ was that Harry was getting rather attached to Draco and couldn't quite imagine letting him leave, much less  _making_ him leave. Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair and contemplated taking a nice long shower until the thoughts in his head stopped being so damn confusing.

The next morning, two loud gasps followed by a loud crash tore Harry and Draco from their sleep.

“Sorry!” Hermione cried out in a deeply apologetic tone of voice. It was followed by: “Repairo! Ron, we should probably come back later!”

Meanwhile, Ron was sputtering: “Ah, er, er, uh, er, ah, huh???”

“Potter, send your minions away before I have to hex them for ruining my sleep!”

“Oh hush, Malfoy. I can make you breakfast to make up for it, and if that's not enough, I can make the shower an interesting place to be.”

Draco lifted his head off his pillow to look Harry in the eyes. “Fine. I'll play nice, but you had  _better_ make me sourdough rye toast topped with caviar for breakfast.”

“Deal!” Harry agreed happily, giving Draco a kiss before sitting up and facing his friends. “Hi. It's _about time_ you got back!” He looked around and found the blanket pouring itself off the side of the bed. Thinking that Draco might appreciate some cover, he grabbed the blanket and fluffed it out over Draco, who promptly made a cocoon out of it. Then he summoned his pants and pulled them on as he slipped out of bed. “Want breakfast? I can make more than caviar on toast.”

Hermione was staring at him with wide eyes while Ron was pointing a shaky a finger at Draco as if he was seeing something impossible – such as a ghost, according to muggles.

“Er, erm, n-no,” Hermione managed to reply, holding out the Snow Globe Ron had dropped and she'd repaired – that they had brought him as a souvenir from Australia. “We already ate...”

Harry took the globe from her and kissed her on the cheek. “How was Australia?”

“Warm,” she blurted out, her gaze now shifted to Draco and her thoughts clearly coming to undeniable conclusions.

“WHY THE BLOODY HELL IS _MALFOY_ NAKED IN YOUR BED WITH YOU?!?!” Ron roared in gobsmacked disbelief.

“Because having him naked in my bed is surprisingly fun and I like having him there,” Harry stated with a grin.

“But! But! But!” Ron protested, his entire face so red that it was glowing. “HE'S _MALFOY_!!!”

“A-are you d-dating now?” Hermione asked, bracing herself to be supportive.

Draco scoffed, but since his cocoon was facing away from them, they basically ignored him.

“No,” Harry replied with a shake of his head. “Just shagging at every opportunity, and he's apparently decided to move in and refuses to leave, even though his parents are _begging_ him to go home already.”

Draco threw a pillow at him. “Fuck you, Potter! I'll consider speaking to my parents again when they apologize for the last – OH... – three or four YEARS of my life!”

Harry threw the pillow right back at him. “And HOW are they supposed to do that when they don't know where you are and you refuse to answer their Owls?!”

Draco sat up to glare at Harry. “ARE YOU TAKING THEIR SIDE?!?!”

Harry glared right back at him, adding a pointing finger. “All I'm saying is that you shouldn't just throw your parents away so easily!”

Hermione couldn't help but giggle, which she hastily covered with a hand. Draco turned to glare at her. Harry simply spun around to see what was so funny, even as Ron was giving her a look that said: they're nutters, the both of them!

“Sorry!” Hermione apologized to Harry. “But it looks like things are business as usual here. You'll have to forgive us for thinking that you two had fallen in love or something.”

Harry frowned. “Woooould that be so bad...?”

Hermione shook her head and hugged him. “Not at all. You can love whomever you want. I just meant that WE were vastly unprepared to pop in to find the two of you naked and curled up so sweetly.”

“Oi!” Draco protested, tempted to hex her.

Hermione kissed Harry on the cheek. “How about we give you two time to eat breakfast, and then you can meet us at the burrow in a half an hour or so?”

Harry shook his head. “Two hours. I promised Malfoy an interesting shower.”

Hermione chuckled even as Ron looked a little green. “Alright then, two hours, and we'll do our best not to worry if you're a little late.”

Hermione held her hand out to Ron, who was now staring vaguely in the direction of the shower and clearly wondering what could possibly take an hour and a half. Twenty or forty minutes, sure, but and hour and a half??? Shaking his thoughts off, he took Hermione's hand and they Disapparated.

***

Draco picked up the Daily Prophet that had been delivered that morning. He was not at all happy by the fact that ever since his friends had returned from Australia, Harry'd been out of the flat almost more than he was in it with Draco. To be honest, that would have been fine in the beginning when Draco had simply lay in bed letting his mind go blank as much as possible, but now that he was feeling better in general, laying here doing nothing was getting boring.

The front page was unsurprisingly devoted to Harry.

_Dear Readers, is our beloved Savior FINALLY planning to get married and start on his happily ever after? Yesterday afternoon, Harry Potter was spotted outside Weasley Wizarding Wheezes with fellow Gryffindor Alumni Parvati Patil. The two were laughing and clearly happy, and the encounter culminated in a rather passionate kiss that we were delighted to get on camera._

Sure enough, the article was accompanied by a picture of Harry and Parvati looking at each other like they knew a happy secret which slowly changed to them kissing. The kiss started out chaste enough, but quickly grew heated until they were clinging to each other and giving it their all. For some reason, this picture turned red, which made Draco realize that the entire room had gone red.

Baffled, Draco decided that it would be fun to conjure two or three hundred tiny physical representations of a blasting hex. In other words, chocolate chip sized bombs. The moment Harry got home, he was planning to play a fun game.

In the meantime, he occupied himself with tearing the entire Prophet into minuscule pieces. Thankfully, he didn't have long to wait – or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, since he didn't have time to calm down. Harry arrived home about ten minutes later with Ron and Hermione in tow.

Draco threw a handful of mini bombs at Harry's face. “You arsehole!” He threw another handful just as the first handful hit Harry, taking him by surprise and stinging more than anything. “You bastard! Fucking prick! Wanker!” With each insult, he tossed more of the bombs at Harry, now aiming for other places as Harry was trying to dodge them.

“Malfoy, what the fuck?!” Harry demanded, absolutely clueless as to why Draco was attacking him like a swarm of irate wasps.

“LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW!!! YOU ENORMOUS BLOODY ARSEHOLE BUGGERING SON OF A BITCH!” That set off a flurry of thrown bombs.

“Ow! What?! STOP!!! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID I DO?!?!”

“I SHOULD SUMMON UP A HELLHOUND AND FEED YOU TO HIM PIECE BY PIECE!!! ***NOBODY*** CHEATS ON DRACO MALFOY AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!” That was punctuated with even larger handfuls of bombs thrown.

“WAIT!!! ***CHEAT???***” Harry was dumbfounded and stood there in shock, in essence letting the bombs hit him full force. “BUT ***YOU*** KEEP INSISTING THAT WE ARE NOT DATING!!!”

“WE. ARE. *** _ **NOT**_ *** DATING!!!” Draco roared as he hurled bombs to punctuate each word.

“THEN HOW IN THE BLOODY FUCK COULD I POSSIBLY CHEAT ON YOU?!?!” Harry shouted, throwing his arms and hands out to convey his bafflement.

“ _SO YOU DON'T DENY IT_!!!!!” Draco screeched as he jumped out of bed and pointed his wand at Harry.

Harry tore at his hair and roared to the ceiling. “AHHH!!!  _ FIRST _ , I DIDN'T BLOODY CHEAT!!!  _ SECOND _ , *** _ HOW _ *** COULD I FUCKING CHEAT ON YOU IF WE ARE NOT DATING?!?!?!”

Draco cast a spell to fling the shredded bits of newspaper at Harry. “DON'T YOU  _ DARE _ LIE TO ME, HARRY FUCKING POTTER! THE  _ PROPHET _ PUBLISHED A PICTURE OF YOU  _ SNOGGING _ PARVATI PATIL IN THE MIDDLE OF DIAGON ALLEY IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!!!” 

Harry felt like his brain had just jumped out of his head and ran away to find safety. “But! But! WHAT???”

“And don't you try to claim that it was someone else Polyjuiced into you because I will not believe it with out irrefutable proof!”

“No wait! I DID kiss Parvati, but it's NOT what you think! She's helping a fundraiser tomorrow night and was hoping to get some cheap publicity guaranteed to have everyone talking about her – in the hope that they would then take an interest in the charity,” Harry explained, then waved his hands back and forth. “But that doesn't even matter! Even if I HAD shagged her right then and there, it CANNOT be considered cheating if YOU keep insisting that we are not dating!!!”

Draco was tempted to first Crucio then physically punch Harry. “ _ We're not _ !” He ground out menacingly, then hissed: “Fuck this!” With that, he turned and Disapparated on the spot.

Harry gasped and pressed a hand to his chest, astonished to find that that one simple action had hurt him far more than all the tiny bombs combined. Hermione pulled him into a hug, humming faintly as she rubbed his back. Meanwhile, Ron was inspecting what was left of the pile of bombs, even going so far as to throw one at his arm to see what it felt like.

“Sss,” he hissed, thinking that it stung but wasn't too bad. “Could be a decent product...”

Harry ignored him. “Am I wrong? IS it possible to cheat on someone you're not dating?”

Hermione didn't really know what to say, so she shrugged. “I... I suppose that depends on a lot of things. Malfoy may vehemently deny dating you, but  _ clearly, _ living with you for the last three months built up some sort of expectation of fidelity. Once he calms down, he may not even understand why he got so upset.”

Harry sighed and slumped a little in frustration. “So what am I supposed to do now?”

“Give him a day to calm down,” Ron advised sensibly. “And then go try to talk to him. And in the meantime, you should probably think about how you feel about him and what you WANT to do.”

Hermione smiled at him adoringly. “Exactly!”

***

Draco Apparated directly to the Crystal Room in Malfoy Manor so that he could take his anger out on every shard of crystal there. He roared and shattered things by hand – by throwing them – and also by casting spells to blast or otherwise destroy things. All the while, he muttered things like: “How dare that Harry buggering Potter!”

Lucius and Narcissa were alerted when Draco came home, and after giving him a few minutes to rant, decided to pop into the Crystal Room and see if they could help solve whatever Draco was having a problem with.

They exchanged a concerned look. Narcissa bit her lip in thought, then nudged her husband. Lucius nodded in understanding and braced himself.

“Son... Did that Potter brat hex you?”

Draco turned on them with a look like he was going to hex them both into oblivion. “NO HE DIDN'T HEX ME! HE'S A BLOODY CHEATER! KISSING PARVATI PATIL IN FRONT OF ***EVERYONE*** IN DIAGON ALLEY!!! I SHOULD BEAT HIM TO A BLOODY PULP AND THEN TURN HIM INTO AN INFERIUS SO THAT I CAN TORTURE HIM EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE!”

His parents exchanged an alarmed look even as Draco resumed his quest to murder every object in the room with as much prejudice as possible.

Narcissa gently ventured a question. “Do you mean to say that you've been dating Harry Potter?”

“WE ARE _**NOT**_ BLOODY DATING!!!” Draco denied vehemently.

His parents were baffled now. “Then how could he cheat on you?”

This managed to calm Draco down just enough that he could pause his tantrum to growl at his parents. “We're not dating, but he made a commitment to me to help me get over my depression and make me feel better and it hasn't even been three months and he's already moving on to someone else!”

Lucius felt like the explanation needed to back up a bit and provide clarity. “So... you're saying that you've been staying with Potter all this time?”

“Yes!” Draco snarled.

Lucius tilted his head to the side suspiciously. “Doing what?”

Draco rolled his eyes so hard that his head followed along. “Oh come now, I'm of age, surely even YOU aren't so old that you can't figure that out on your own.”

Lucius did not appreciate that and gave him a look clearly stating as much. “Fine. Setting that aside, this is THAT POTTER BRAT that we're talking about. Why in the bloody hell would you make any sort of commitment to him???”

“Because he offered and I didn't have a good reason to decline,” Draco stated, feeling strangely calmer now.

Narcissa smiled at him. “Can we assume that your reaction to his cheating means that you're serious about him?”

“As if!” Draco scoffed, but then pinched his chin as he thought this over. “Hmm... Well... _maybe_...”

Narcissa pulled him into a tight hug. “Oh love. I want you to know I'll support you no matter what, but perhaps you should spend some time thinking about what it is you actually want.”

“And if there's ANYONE other than Potter that can give it to you,” Lucius added, praying that he had someone in mind.

Draco didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, before he had to decide, a stag Patronus ran into the room. They all stared at him in surprise for a moment.

“Where did you go, Malfoy? Look, I didn't realize that you would get mad, or I would have just told you what happened myself. I'm sorry! I'm such an idiot at times. Will you come back here so that we can talk?”

Looking ready to breathe fire again, Draco cast his Patronus. “Tell Potter: What's there to talk about? Clearly, we had vastly different definitions of what was going on.”

There was silence as all three of them couldn't help but wonder if Harry would accept that as final, or if he'd try to argue.

“Come on, Malfoy! At least prove to me that you didn't go to somewhere other than the Leaky – which I already checked – to let people give you nasty drugs and poisons again!”

“ _ **WHAT**_?!?!?!” His parents roared in unison.

Draco rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, suddenly feeling extremely guilty. “That's not, erm...” He cleared his throat. “Well, I think I should probably go reassure Potter before he comes here to make a scene.”

Before his parents could protest or attempt to stop him, Draco Apparated straight to Harry's flat.

“Thank God!” Harry gasped out, throwing his arms around Draco and holding him so tight that he almost couldn't breathe. “NEVER leave me again!”

All the anger that Draco'd still had inside him even a moment ago died completely. “Erm... Is that a proposal?”

Harry kissed him possessively. “Only if you want it to be.”

Draco tilted his head to the side as he studied Harry's face. No matter how much he looked, Harry seemed serious. Intensely serious.

He took a deep breath. “Alright Potter. If you're serious enough to marry me, then I'll honor my vows and never leave. Er well, I might need to leave your side temporarily to vent anger or do things, but not... permanently...”

“Deal!” Harry agreed enthusiastically before trying to steal Draco's soul via a kiss. After that, they fell into bed and didn't plan to leave it for a long time. Except...

Draco looked around as he was drifting off to sleep that night. “Hmm... We're going to need a bigger flat.”

Laughing, Harry promised him: “Whatever makes you happy.”

**Author's Note:**

> No plans to continue, but in my mind, they get married and live happily ever after ^_^


End file.
